A post on Sullivan's blog from a reader notes:
Shhhh. Listen. Can you hear that? No, be quiet and listen. That deafening, ear splitting silence is the reaction of Americans to the frat pranks of our CIA brothers. I'm absolutely aghast at your hysterically over the top reaction to this non-issue.A different reader posts:
I remain utterly gobsmacked that adult Americans in the 21st century can be so obtuse to the dangers of tolerating and even codifying such unmediated exceptions to due process. I don't think that it's hypocrisy, per se, so much as it is a willful ignorance, a blinding stupidity, or at least an expression of breathtaking intellectual dishonesty.The various Red Cross and other reports notes that 108 detainees have died during these "frat pranks." With no one wasting a single minute ignoring this huge Constitutional issue, one has to marvel at what the second reader calls the "willful ignorance [or] blinding stupidity" of mainstream Americans. Blogger Ta-Nehisi Coates is disappointed in us.
I'd like to see some exploration into how to make this torture argument directly to the people. Maybe we can't. Maybe people really don't care that much. But if we're wondering why Obama isn't willing to press forward, I think it's fair to also wonder why the people aren't pressing him to press forward.Incidentally, just because the citizens of this country don't give a shit about this issue, doesn't mean that serious crimes weren't committed. And they were. And lawyers and serious defenders of the Constitution will take up this issue, even if the American public won't. When the truth comes out -- and it continues to come out -- there will be outrage, particularly when one of our own gets the same treatment in a foreign country.
DAD: Son, what possessed you to do something as God-awful stupid as smoking that cigarette?
SON: You. You smoke; why can't I?
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